Abstract
Food choices are influenced by many factors, such as emotional. When people eat, driven by emotional factors, they often lose control, which may lead to eating disorders. Therefore, this work aimed at studying the influence that emotional determinants had on people’s food choices. It was undertaken a descriptive cross-sectional study by means of a questionnaire on a non-probabilistic sample of 1314 participants. The data was collected among a sample of the Portuguese population and measured if people´s food choices were influenced by emotional determinants. The results revealed that the participants’ food choices were, in general, slightly influenced by emotional determinants (mean scores between –0.5 and 0.5, on a scale from –2 to +2). There were found significant differences in all of the variables under study. The participants, who already experienced an episode of binge-eating, were the ones that obtained the highest mean score (0.63±0.79), meaning that in this case those participants’ food choices were influenced by emotional determinants. These results support the premise that emotional determinants are influenced by the characteristics of each individual and also the existence of a positive association between emotional eating and the presence of eating disorders, especially, binge-eating.
Highlights
Food consumption is essential for people’s survival, and food choices are a daily task [1].food choice behaviour is complex and influenced by different factors, such as for example, hunger, cost, accessibility, culture, peers and emotions [2]
The main goal of this particular research was to evaluate in what extent the participants’ food choices were influenced by emotional determinants, especially among the participants who had already experienced an episode of any eating disorder and those, who never had, for a sample of the Portuguese population
The Body Mass Index (BMI) class has proven to influence the fact that the participants had already experienced an episode of any eating disorder (p
Summary
Food consumption is essential for people’s survival, and food choices are a daily task [1].food choice behaviour is complex and influenced by different factors, such as for example, hunger, cost, accessibility, culture, peers and emotions [2]. Restrained eaters tend to consume more food in response to fear and negative mood states, while the opposite occurs in the case of non-restrained eaters [5]. According to Locher et al [8], comfort foods are usually familiar to the individual and used only on special occasions, most notably when feeling sad, depressed or when alone. They may evoke feelings of nostalgia, they are usually prepared in a simple or traditional style, are often indulgent, and typically provide a sense of both physical and emotional comfort
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
